Matt Damon signs Nikolaj Arcel to direct RFK

'The Dark Tower' director Nikolaj Arcel will join forces with Matt Damon on an upcoming Robert F. Kennedy biopic, which the Hollywood actor will star in and produce

Matt Damon is to team up with Nikolaj Arcel on a Robert F. Kennedy biopic.

The Hollywood star's 'RFK' movie appears to be picking up momentum after 'The Dark Tower' filmmaker signed up to direct the forthcoming biopic, which is based on the life of the late politician.

According to The Tracking Board, Arcel has penned a script alongside Rasmus Heisterberg and Felipe Marino, and production is due to begin next year.

Damon will star in and produce the motion picture alongside Jennifer Todd and Drew Vinton.

The 46-year-old actor has made no secret of his desire to play Robert F. Kennedy, the younger brother of former US president John F. Kennedy.

In 2014, he said: "If they could figure out a way to do Bobby Kennedy, I would love to do that. I just love that guy, and the incredible things he was saying at the end of his life.

"He's a really interesting figure but it's just so hard to do those biopics without them being cumbersome. it's very difficult to [put his story] into two hours."

RFK was the US Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, serving under his older brother and his successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson, and he went on to become a New York senator.

He was assassinated in June 1968 aged 42, five years after his brother John F. Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963 when he was 46.

Arcel wrote the 2009 'Girl With the Dragon Tattoo' movie and his latest project, an adaptation of Stephen King's 'The Dark Tower' - which stars Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey - is due to drop next month.